Bellevue International School was the sole creation of six visionary teachers, and has consistently ranked in the top tier of schools nationwide...Read more

How Kirkland International Community School (ICS) Began

Kirkland International Community School had no computers the first year, and our students were housed in portables with little shelter from the rain...Yet, by the second year we achieved the highest writing scores on statewide exams...Read more

How Marysville Arts & Technology H.S. Began

"We don't have tennis courts. We don't have a gym. We don't have a lot of things," Principal Bruce Saari said. "We do have a small school culture."Read more

How Social Promotion Gives a "Pass" to Schools that Fail

Ask any teacher whether social promotion "works", and you will receive a clear answer: It doesn't...Read more

First Test Scores from Bellevue International School and Kirkland International School

These scores were achieved by schools that were untried, built on promises, and which had yet to acquire a reputation for rigor and success...Read more

Seamless Curriculum at Bellevue International School and Kirkland International School

Quarterly grading periods, winter breaks and summer recesses were mere interruptions in one continuous curriculum...Read more

Creating A Powerful Teaching Culture

If the teaching culture is not transformed, then "school renewal" will be an empty promise...Read more

Making it Better vs. Making it New

"Better" and "different" may sometimes be confused as charter schools describe their mission...Read more

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL WRITING FOR ALL STUDENTS>

There are no shortcuts when it comes to improving Middle and High School writing skills.

Using exciting creative writing activites as a springboard, this mastery learning Middle and High School writing curriculum dramatically improves student voice, fluency, correct use of the conventions and sentence structure for all students, even the most reluctant.

This curriculum enlists all students in the adventure of looking at language in a new way: Parts of speech become familar, key players; new vocabularies are discovered and applied; and precise, correct and powerful grammatical constructions become second nature for all of your students, regardless of previous language proficiency.

Test score results for this curriculum demonstrate that interactive creative writing activities are the best way to enlist students in the joy of creating sentences that are mature, precise, evocative and powerful.

Most important, this curriculum will enrich the climate of your school by dramatically improving student abilitiy to read, write and evaluate language and ideas in all their classes.

The curricula links at the top of this page will be your source for making major writing achievement breakthroughs with all of your students.